chief of the criminal division at justice, lanny breuer, says the problem is that greed is not necessarily criminal. >> i am personally offended by much of what i have seen. i think there was a level of greed, a level of excessive risk taking in this situation that i find abominable and i find very upsetting. but that is not what makes a criminal case. what makes a criminal case is that i can prove beyond a reasonable doubt every element of a crime. >> narrator: some former prosecutors believe the problem is a lack of effort. >> the justice department failed. they have not done what needed to be done. they didn't ever try to bring together one coherent narrative, laying out the entirety of the story, against one of the major players and demand sanctions that are meaningful. that to me is what has been fundamentally lacking. >> narrator: the story of how the big banks amassed enormous fortunes packaging home loans into securities and selling them to investors all over the world began, of course, on the ground with mortgage originators. >> what my econ i prof taught us was business goes in c